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Teachers in Gahanna-Jefferson schools would receive base salary raises this year and next year
but none in 2015 under a proposed three-year labor deal.

Raises would amount to 1.5 percent this year and 1 percent next year, under a contract the
teachers union ratified on Sunday and the board will decide on Thursday. Many of them also will
receive step raises, annual pay bumps based on seniority.

But the union agreed to keep teachers one year behind on their salary schedule — which is based
on years of service and higher-education degrees — a carryover from when the union accepted a pay
freeze last year.

The district provided the tentative agreement yesterday in response to a
Dispatch records request.

The contract would be one of the first in the area to incorporate new teacher evaluations
required this year under state law. Teachers would be graded in part by how much their students
grow academically in a year, earning one of four ratings established by the state. But in Gahanna,
the district wouldn’t use that data for promotion or firing decisions until 2016.

New state laws also forbid districts from making layoff decisions based on seniority, but the
Gahanna proposal would give preference to teachers with “continuing contracts,” who typically have
more experience.

Teachers with “limited contracts,” who generally have fewer years of work, would be the first to
be laid off in a financial crisis. Only if all “limited” teachers were laid off would any with “
continuing” contracts become targets.

The second factor to determine layoffs would be which grade level or subject a teacher is
licensed in, followed by performance on the new evaluations. The district would treat all
evaluations the same, though, until July 2014.

On top of pay raises, the proposed deal would also pay teachers for hitting certain goals.
Teachers who worked last year would earn $400 because the district received an “A” for the number
of indicators it met on the state report card.

For each of the next two years, if the district hits that mark again, teachers would receive “
recognition pay” of $200.

The district’s contribution to health-care policies would not increase by more than 9 percent
annually, beginning in 2015. In January 2014, teachers and the school board also would receive a
one-month “premium holiday” in which they would not have to pay health- insurance premiums.

Teachers would also have incentive to give retirement notice sooner: Those who notify the
treasurer by Jan. 15 each year would receive $1,000.

Superintendent Francis Scruci declined to comment beyond a written release, which states that he
believes that the deal “allows the district to meet the many challenges facing the district.”